I was
flying today and I got stuck on one of those tiny two seater planes. As I took my seat I had a conversation with the flight attendant, I was in the very back seat of the plane on the aisle so we had tons of time to talk while she was strapped into the jump seat (I don’t understand why they’re allowed to push around heavy carts full of soda while we’re in the air flying at 30,000 feet but when we’re on the runway they have to be strapped in like fighter pilots but some things are just not for me to know). So anyway, the conversation goes like this:
FA: (in a conspiratorial whisper) Do you need an extender?
Me: (in my normal speaking voice) No thanks I travel with my own [hold it up]
FA: Why?
Me: It’s just easier and this way I don’t have to bother you and I can make sure that I have one if you run out.
FA: Oh, I’ve never run out of extenders on a flight, even on a 747, we never really need that many.
Me: How many do you carry?
FA: Three on each flight.
Me: Even on a 747?
FA: Yup, three.
I’ve had this conversation before with flight attendants. For all we hear about how fat people are overtaking the airlines and making everyone uncomfortable, according to at least 5 flight attendants to whom I’ve spoken, no more than 3 people on each flight are actually larger than the plane’s seatbelts accommodate. I started thinking about it and I realized that I was on over 100 flights last year and was never seated next to another fat passenger. Guys with broad shoulders, guys who sat with their legs wide open in the middle seat, one douche who jammed his elbow into my side to work on his laptop , several people with cloying perfume/cologne that gave me a headache, people who reeked of cigarette smoke and gave me a sore throat, several people with strong body odor, several screaming babies, and one poodle in yappy distress for an entire cross country flight, but not a single other fat person.
So, I first have to ask how big a problem fat people on planes really is? Is it overblown? Is it actually that seats have become smaller and the rows have been compressed in a way that makes most average sized people uncomfortable, but they want to blame it on fat people? Today the women who was supposed to be sitting beside me took an option to move up into a seat that reclines a couple of rows ahead of us. I noticed that while she was freaked out about the idea of our shoulders touching, she was still touching the shoulders of the woman beside her and seemed to have no issue with that.
So is this really that big of a problem or is it a perception based on obesity hysteria – a general cultural prejudice that fat is bad and so touching a fat person is gross, but touching a thin person is just part of being on a plane? As I walked up the aisle of my second flight today I noticed how many people were touching the shoulders of the passenger beside them without any complaint, and without suggesting that they should both be charged extra because they didn’t have a complete bubble of personal space.
I couldn’t find stats of the number of people who marinate in cheap fragrance before heading to the airport, fly with angry puppies, eschew deodorant, or have loudly uncomfortable infants on flights everyday but unless I am the unluckiest flyer in the history of flying that number is high. And I’m not complaining – challenging smells and sounds are all part of the joy of public transportation, people are not required to wear perfume to suit me, mom’s gotta fly and babies gotta cry. I think that the whole flying fat people issue is unique because the problem is 100% solvable by the airlines. They can’t make babies not cry, and they can’t make people skip the cologne, but they could start to accommodate the simple fact that their customers come in a variety of sizes and they choose not to.
Airlines act like this problem is just so difficult as so be unsolvable but if they rarely need more than 3 seat belt extenders then how difficult would it actually be to solve it?
I don’t think that this is the only problem that has been overblown by perception (and sometimes for profit) when it comes to fat people. Everything from how much we cost the workplace to the relationship between weight and Type 2 Diabetes, to how many of us there are. So the next time you hear someone talk about a problem that is due to fat or fat people, take a step back and ask if this is a problem or just a perception?
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Dances With Fat 
The media works very hard at honing society’s perceptions – the other day I came across an article with the headline to the effect that ‘obesity is contagious’ – the story discussed how a certain bacteria in the gastrointestinal system of obese mice turned out to be contagious and thus they had concluded that the propensity to be fat could be transmitted from one mouse to another. No one cares that people are not mice, [nor do they eat feces, which was how the mice transmitted the bacteria], but the bullet point the purveyors of the article wanted everyone to believe was that ‘fat was contagious’. Irresponsible journalism is, IMHO, a major part of the problem. Most people won’t read the article, but they’ll see the headline and spread the stupidity of it.
Apart from the “fat people are icky and you will catch fat cooties from them” issue, shouldn’t people be interested in the fact that there is apparently a bacterium associated with fat? How do they reconcile that with the idea that I sit around all day drinking Big Gulps and eating 4 chickens at t time? It seems to drum up more interest, though, as you say, to sensationalize the “FAT IS CONTAGIOUS” angle.
Not to be gross, but people eat feces all the time, just in microscopic amounts and unknowingly. Almost any stomach flu, many food posionings, hepatitis A and other diseases are spread through fecal/oral transmission. 🙂
That being said, if their research is true, it could be used to optimize people’s gut functioning and help them actually end up at the healthy weight for them, whether that is 100 or 300+ lbs. It. Ertainoy doesn’t address the wholeness of the things that go into determining the weight of an individual though.
They also ignore the fact that those mice are probably a select genetic strain that may not reflect the genomes of fat people. When the hormone leptin was discovered they thought its deficiency must be the reason people get fat, because they were able to cure fat mice from their test group, but it turned out that most fat people are not leptin-deficient and only a few benefit from it. This may be a similar case.
I’m fat but my bum is just on the edge of what fits reasonably comfortably in an airline seat. The armrest goes down and there’s plenty of seatbelt left over when I fasten it. And people STILL give me the hairy eyeball when they have to sit next to me– I dread the dirty looks more than the flying. (Personally I have more of an issue with men with shoulders/spread knees…) The seats are just tiny anymore!
I think you may be on to something that the airlines are shrinking the seats and blaming it on fat people. It’s much more convenient for them if passengers’ discomfort can be blamed on their seatmates and not the airline.
“Hairy eyeball”? That’s a new one! =-D
I flew last spring. On the way to Omaha, I shared a row with a man who gave me the evil eye when he saw me. So I contorted myself to curl around the wall of the plane while he took 1.5 seats with his outspread arms and shoulders. I did not need an extender.
I flew back to Chicago on the same airline, got a single seat and nearly cried with joy. By that time I was a physical mess (inflammatory arthritis) and didn’t want to deal with contorting myself to make someone else comfortable. I required an extender–on the same airline, same model plane for the outgoing flight–and the flight attendant was so respectful! He was so cute as he hid the extender in his hands to bring it to me.
It’s sad that the airlines have painted targets on all of us fat people and made it open season to be rude to us when we fly. Could we file a class action law suit for distress?! lol
I flew to Russia this last December, three flights each way. I purposely bought two seats for the trip (I will not go into the nightmare that dealing with that was, suffice to say it was one). Anyway, I have very large hips and wanted the extra room, particularly on the 10 hour flight. Even with my largeness, I only took up maybe an inch or two of the extra seat and my seatmate and I had tons of extra room to store our blankets, pillows, books, etc. I always noticed that the other person seemed so relieved to have the extra room too. Not because I was fat, they would have not been directly next to me anyway, but because they could relax better.
On my final flight from Chicago to Portland, it was an overly full flight and at the last minute a crew member not working that flight came and sat next to me in MY extra seat. I was so squished, though I could technically fit in the seat it was incredibly uncomfortable and we had a three hour flight ahead of us. I asked if they had told him that I had purchased the seat and he said no. I expressed my discomfort, the actual physical discomfort and the mental discomfort about causing discomfort to others because of my size. He said he didn’t want to make me uncomfortable and he could go sit in the cockpit, which he did. I have no clue what he or the guy next to us was thinking, but it took me about 20 minute before I could just relax and enjoy my flight.
I also find it frustrating how they encourage larger people to get an extra seat, but make it difficult to do so and during travel they do their darnedest to give away the ALREADY PURCHASED seat! Seriously, if you give away my seat, I’m making you pay me back, not get double fare on the seat. No is ever concerned about my size when they are stuffing another person on the plane.
And, I’d like to say, I’d consider buying two economy class tickets for long plane rides even if I were thin. Costs less than first class and you get just enough extra room to not go nuts.
That’s what is so ridiculous–airlines encouraging (or even demanding) fat people buy an extra seat, then feeling they still have rights to it. I’m glad you let him know you’d paid for it and that he should move.
My boyfriend/fiance (he proposed while on the trip, which was so cool!) and I just got back to MI from Boston. I’m a smaller-than-average woman, but he’s 6’6″ and quite fat. He was thrilled to have me to sit between him and other people on the plane. Not because he actually takes up so much extra space (on the way back, I sat next to a thin guy who took up more space than the fiance did, between his laptop and his blueprints and his need to spread his legs as far apart as he could manage), but because people are always giving him the stink-eye for being fat while on a plane. He’s quiet, doesn’t move much, doesn’t emit offensive smells, and never wails like an infant, but too many people still act like his merely being fat is worse than all those other things combined. *growl*
I found out I love traveling next to him. I have autism and touching strangers stresses the crap out of me, but I can curl up right against his shoulder and be super-comfortable, and he can use me as an armrest, and we’re both happy. 🙂
Your story makes me so happy, thank you so much for sharing it!
~Ragen
I last flew in November 2010, and I was roughly the same size as I am now (I’m a size 22 and have a 55 inch hip circumference, which I only know because I’m a knitter and needed measurements for the sweater I’m making) and I was surprised to *not* need a seatbelt extender. On Southwest, even. No one even blinked at me (which is good because I in no way had enough money to buy an extra seat or had the emotional capacity at that moment to deal with any rigamarole). So, I guess I’m not all that surprised that they only need 3 extenders on any given flight.
I flew to Detroit just before Christmas to see my daughter, her husband and my two adorable grandbabies. What I noticed was:
1. Not one flight attendant or passenger singled me out because I am fat. I weigh between 240 and 250 lbs and am 5’4″. I didn’t get asked about an extender or to move because I made someone uncomfortable. Honestly, we’re all uncomfortable on those planes.
2. I flew Alaska from Spokane to Seattle on a small plane that still had plenty of room, unlike the Southwest Airlines cattle cars they call airplanes. Then I flew Alaska from Seattle to Chicago – again plenty of room, unlike the Frontier Airlines I flew the last time.
3. I flew a small plane from Detroit to Chicago and one of the flight attendants, on a small plane no less, was a tall, beautiful, blonde, plus size woman. I was very surprised as I always assumed that you couldn’t be a larger sized woman and be a flight attendant. I don’t fly that often, but I’ve never seen a flight attendant that wasn’t thin.
My travel experience was a good one, mostly due to the fact I flew Alaska, but I also try to carry myself with confidence and don’t expect that I will be treated differently than anyone else. I live in the same very small town where I grew up and no one has ever commented on my weight or treated me differently because I was heavier. Except my mother, but THAT’S a different story, 🙂
I fly for work a lot and a majority of it is on Alaska Airlines. There is absolutely a difference in how the airlines treat you with Alaska being probably one of the best airlines out there. I try to book with them whenever I can.
I actually had a really fun flight recently where I was the thinnest in our row (and I’m a size 20) – we all got to snuggle up pretty close for several hours, joking that by the time we landed we’d have been squashed into ONE GIGANTIC FAT FLYER.
It was really pretty awesome – we turned it into our own little Fatty Party and had a blast. 🙂 If I could sign up to always fly in a fat-people section I totally would!
I used to fly a lot (I only have one trip planned this year, sad) and only one time has there been a risk of the plane running out of seat extenders. But I just had to wait for the FA to finish the safety brief and then she gave it to me. It was enough that I went ahead and purchased my own for all future flights.
I know I’ve said this several times on here, but AirTran airlines (before they were purchased by Southwest) used to allow inexpensive upgrades to their business class when you checked in. Therefore I have NEVER seen an AirTran flight without a full business class. If you consider that the minimum upgrade charge was $49 per flight (so if you have a layover and wanted BC on both flights, you paid $98 before tax), it seems to me that would make an airline MUCH more money than squeezing an inch out of every seat to fit in one or two more seats in the back. Of course, now Southworst has taken them over and is getting rid of business class all together.
My other gripe in how airlines treat their fat passengers is this business over buying two seats. It is IMPOSSIBLE to buy two seats under one name on their websites, but they add a surcharge to call them on the phone. So not only am I stuck buying two seats if I want to be comfortable, I have to pay an additional price for the “privilege” of talking to a live (often surly) human being.
I’ve always been a huge proponent of customer service. If a company wants to make money, they should always look first to how they’re treating their customers. Maybe, just maybe, if airlines were more concerned with making their customers comfortable and not being huge douchecanoes over ever little thing, they wouldn’t be going bankrupt left and right because more people would be flying. As a consumer, I’m generally willing to pay more for a service that doesn’t make me feel like a freak of nature.
Actually, you can do it on the website. Use first name XS for most of them. There are always instructions on the website.
And….I just realized how COMPLETELY off topic my whole comment was. Sorry. =(
According to a VERY helpful Lufthanza employee, the way two seats for one person should be done (and apparently is done on their airline) is that you buy two seats, but only pay taxes on one (which are usually half the ticket price anyway) and they then set it up so that you have the two seats on one boarding pass (having two boarding passes was what caused the majority of my issues – an issue he fixed from Seattle thru St. Petersburg and it helped a lot).
I know I made a point to say I had two tickets for one person often to avoid having to deal with them stealing my seat and I still had to deal with that situation too.
I do this quite a bit (buying a second seat) – you enter your name for the second seat as “FirstName XS LastName” (XS is for extra seat). You do have to be checked in by a person, rather than those auto-check-in machines. And that person is not likely to know what to do with you, but they always eventually figure it out. You get a boarding pass for yourself and a receipt for the second seat, which I scotch-tape to the seat back to discourage anyone trying to sit there.
Last spring I took my first airplane ride in… oh… must be about ten years or so. It was even on the dreaded Southwest, because they had the cheapest seats available and Mr. Twistie and I needed to count every kopek.
I am officially Deathfatz (though that does come at a smaller weight when one is only 5’2″, eyes of blue)… and I didn’t need an extender. I fit quite comfortably into my seat. Mr. Twistie had a harder time fitting his seat, but largely because he’s much, much taller than I am with long arms and legs.
After everything I’d been hearing about Flying While Fat, I was half expecting all manner of horrible outcomes and I seriously considered buying a seatbelt extender, despite the fact I virtually never fly. It just never came up.
There was another party of fats on the plane, and they all looked bigger around than I am. I didn’t notice any of them asking for or pulling out their own extenders, either. They seemed to fit just fine.
It’s certainly interesting to hear that on most flights there aren’t even enough passengers who need them to pass out three seatbelt extenders.
Then again, it’s not uncommon for people spreading moral panic to incredibly overstate the dangers… and there is all manner of moral hooplah surrounding the simple act of being fat. From the way the airlines talk, you’d think that an onslaught of super-sized (but only in a fat way, because tall doesn’t weigh anything, apparently) passengers was causing half the planes to plummet from the sky onto innocent baby harp seals and spotted owl hatchlings. In reality, fat people fly, thin people fly, short people fly, tall people fly, and the vast majority of us reach our destinations in relative safety, if not actual comfort.
Frankly, I’m a lot more concerned with someone’s perfume causing a nasty reaction in my extremely aroma-sensitive self than I am about literally rubbing shoulders with the person in the next seat. Nobody is going to be comfortable if I spend an entire flight half choking.
I’m ready to go crash a plane on some kittens now. While eating baby-flavored doughnuts. 😀
For dealing with fumes on a plane, I have a suggestion. Buy a honeycomb mask with disposable carbon filter from icanbreathe.com. This mask is reusable, nice-looking(for a face mask!) and very comfortable to wear. I haven’t been on a plane since I bought mine, but I used it recently for some stable work because I was getting a cold and my lungs were very sensitive to irritants. Normally I breathe a lot of dust from pine shavings, straw and hay, which also have a powerful scent. Just smelling pine shavings makes my nose itch. With the mask on, I couldn’t smell it at all and didn’t breathe any dust. I bet it would help a lot on a plane.
I’m 5’0″ and 110 pounds — hardly a large person — and I’m always cramped on airlines, no matter what the size of the person I’m sitting beside. No one is comfortable on flights. It has nothing to do with fat (usually) and everything to do with airlines attempting to maximize profits by getting as many butts on each flight as possible.
So far my best flight was from DC to San Fran, on a plane full of people on their way to a dog show. I was flying with my heavily sedated, elderly cat, with about a dozen other animals on the plane. Even though the dogs and cat were carrying on, we all had an attitude of “What’re you gonna do?”, everybody chatted and helped each other and just relaxed. Maybe that’s the answer to Flying Friendly. Just chill the hell out, stop trying to find someone to blame for every little inconvenience and remember that all horrible things come to an end.
I’m willing to bet that part of the situation is that fat people like me hate flying enough to avoid it. I haven’t flown since my mother died three years ago… but I drive to California, New York, Kansas City, Seattle, all from Chicago and at least once a year. I hate the way people sneer and treat me on a plane, and the stories I’ve heard from other fat people do nothing to convince me that it’s getting any better out there. I’m done with planes (except for emergencies like funerals).
Having to deal with the rude incompetence of the TSA is enough to stop me from flying, let alone the vile way they tend to treat larger people.
I must be honest. When I did fly between 9/11 and my mother’s funeral, very often I had an infant or toddler with me and most people were hating on us for being so slow that if I got any fat-related crap from anyone, I really didn’t notice (try managing a 1yo, stroller, car seat, diaper bag, laptop bag, coats, purse, shoes, and tickets through the TSA line on your own!). Walking down a plane aisle with a baby (even a cooperative kid like mine) is almost as bad as doing so while fat… God bless the sweet grandmas that gave us smiles! Also, I usually purchased a seat for him too, so I didn’t have to worry about the unpardonable sin of letting one of my fat rolls touch another human being. But when I flew by myself… I just signed up for a different flavor of hater.
Yes, anecdotally (Kate Harding’s blog) every time I’ve read a comments thread about the Southwest policy, Kevin Smith etc., there have been *numerous* comments from larger people who say they avoid flying, even to the point of driving long distances for events, because they fear or expect to be mistreated.
Yup, that’s me. Well to be fair it’s a combo of 9/11 jitters and not wanting to be treated badly. People always make fun of me because I’ll drive for days to get somewhere they can get in about two hours.
I have also seen people who probably should have asked for an extender contort themselves so that they can fit with the regular seat belt just so that they don’t draw attention to the fact that they need one. Then they are even more uncomfortable (and everyone is uncomfortable enough with the crap seats anyways). I notice that sometimes I need an extender and sometimes I don’t even on the same type of plane and same airline. Personally, I am not having a belt digging into me for 3000 miles-if we are going to crash and burn, I want the last hours of my life to be as comfortable as possible so bring on the seat belt extender oh and while you are at it, can I have a seat extender as well?
“So, I first have to ask how big a problem fat people on planes really is? Is it overblown? ”
Just something worth mentioning re: the fact that most planes don’t have enough superfat flyers to pass out all three seatbelt extenders. This isn’t because there aren’t potentially enough superfat flyers to require the three extenders and more. It’s likely because the experience of flying while superfat is so incredibly annoying, anxiety-ridden, potentially humiliating, and generally stressful that most folks who might need a seatbelt extender do everything within their power to avoid flying. I am 5’8″, 340lbs. I need a seatbelt extender on most flights. I manage because my build is such that my hips are narrow, but it takes all my emotional reserves to get through the several flights I take each year. The problem is not overblown, but the focus is definitely skewed.
That is an EXCELLENT point. It may well be that there are tons of fat people who’ve simply given up on flying altogether.
~Ragen
As a very tall fat even when I was not in the deathfatz range I still only had a couple inches left on the seatbelt, and my hips would always spill a little under the armrest. Now, as officially deathfatz and a quarter inch from six feet tall (two meters) my broad self fits into a plane seat precisely as a foot into a too-small shoe. I can put the armrest down only if I lean on it (hello, bruising!) and that’s usually not to draw attention from the armrest police as they scan for a victim to kick off the flight or force to pay twice (I usually need to get where I’m on time – just like a thin person – and can’t afford nor am I inclined to pay for two seats – just like a thin person). This usually works, then the eyerolling huffpuffing seatmate can negative-energy-propel their way into my seat (except when they are lovely people or don’t care. That happens 60% of the time, gladly).
I also have never sat next to another big fat, nor do I notice many on a plane. It’s almost like the stats say — I’m in the 99.99% percentile for my height + weight + gender class and hence wouldn’t expect another of me in a 300-person flight.
I have always thought there could be an easy solution to these problems. Why don’t airlines just take one of the rows of seats and turn three seats into two? Then each seat would be the size of 1 1/2 of the regular tiny squished seats, and they could charge 1 1/2 times what a tiny seat costs. It would be waaay cheaper than first class, and cheaper than buying two seats. Not to mention you could buy it online with out having to deal with the incompetence of the phone bookers, and it would eliminate any potential of having your extra seat taken from you. No humiliation either! I think a lot of other people who are tall, broad shouldered, claustrophobic (my biggest problem with flying!) , or moms flying with babies in lap would also be willing to pay for the extra space, so they wouldn’t have trouble filling them. Seems so logical to me, am I way off base here?
Also, easy on the baby hating. No one hates having kids on a plane more than the mom in charge of them, trust me!! We do the best we can to shut them up, and it is such a horrible stressful situation!
I’ve suggested that as well. I’d also be willing to squish into a row ‘o fatties or they could create a program where thin people are willing to sit next to fat ones or something, there has GOT to be a better way.
~Ragen
I looked up seat widths some time back and found that the average economy class airplane seat is 16″ wide. It just so happens that my shoulder bones (not including arms) are 19″ wide. This means I will never fit comfortably into an airplane seat.
I’m fortunate that I do not have need to fly regularly, because in addition to being larger than the average female at 5’9″ and 250lbs, I have mild claustrophobia which is usually triggered by enforced people proximity. :p